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Rendered: The Opel Monza Concept, With Buick’s Waterfall Grille

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Based on everything we’ve seen so far, the Opel Monza Concept promises to be one stunning vehicle. And if the production-intent car looks anything like the concept that will debut at the upcoming 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show, then it has a huge chance of being one of the best-looking cars on the market.

Now, given the fact that General Motors is aligning Opel/Vauxhall with Buick, it only makes sense that the production vehicle be available as a Buick, perhaps as a Grand National. In light of that, we’ve equipped the Monza Concept with Buick’s signature waterfall grille from the 2014 Regal GS — and very much like what we see. Do you?

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Please read my response to Richard in the other post about the Monza, again Opel Monza and Buick Regal can share platforms fine, OK great and maybe body components if absolutely necissary. But neither brand should be defining the others design language, or influencing the others design language, that is a bad recipe.

I still disagree, ‘Doo. Buick and Opel can share the same design language. They are old brands with a lot of history. But let’s be honest, they exist simply because the Chinese dig Buicks and the Europeans dig Opel/Vauxhall. Then let’s be even more realistic…they aren’t exactly Bentleys or Lamborghinis. They don’t need independent design languages to succeed. They are just family vehicles with a bit of luxury thrown in for good measure. They don’t compete with each other in any market and as such don’t need to be distinguished or bespoke. The last time that GM felt that an Opel model needed to be adapted to another brand’s “design language” the Saturn L-Series was the result. A car that was once an Opel Vectra but required the Saturn must-have plastic panels, cost them$900 million in the process (“Car Guys vs Bean Counters”, Bob Lutz) and never achieved any degree of success. Nostalgia is a very dangerous task-master which has relegated many once-decent brands to the history books. That almost happened to every brand at GM (catching Oldsmobile, Saturn, Hummer, SAAB, and Pontiac) and is set to happen with those bullshit trucks they recently unveiled.

Remember that part of the “executive shuffle” at Opel and GM Europe was the return of

QUOTE (from the press release):

Mark Adams (51), Executive Director, Global Cadillac and Buick Design and GME Vice President, Design, will repatriate to Germany and assume the position of GME Vice President, Design. In addition, Mark will be the Champion for Opel/Buick brand strategies and design language. “This move will provide an increased emphasis on joint strategies across Opel/Vauxhall and Buick,” said Dr. Neumann.

The real question we should be asking ourselves is that if this is what an Opel coupe will look like (Smokin Hot) then what will the new Camaro look like. In other words are there any influential traits from this vehicle that we can identify for the next Camaro.

I think the Monza is sensational. I’d like to think that it will become a Buick. Perhaps the Riviera nameplate is right for this kind of sexy coupe. Let’s hope it’s not just another fantastic GM styling exercise that doesn’t get approved for one reason or another or gets killed after a couple years in development (like the Cadillac Ciel concept).

I am convinced now that this vehicle should be a Riviera. It doesn’t have that sleeper appearance that the GN and GNX had and still represent. The Riviera has always been the vehicle to have insane design…the Third and the Eighth Gen being my favourites.

But wouldn’t basing the vehicle’s name on the existence and character(istic) of a past nameplate be solely for the sake of nostalgia?

I’m not disagreeing about the fact that the Riviera name fits this kind of car better, by the way; instead, I’m questioning the reasoning for not using the GN/GNX names (which I don’t think fit today’s Buick).

That Buick grill works great on that concept car. I can only imagine it would work well on the production version of the car also.
I agree that it would be best for the car to have a new name to help Buick move forward. I also agree that Regal was the wrong name for that car in North America. I know someone who bought one, and I’m told every time cars come up in conversation and she says she bought a Regal, people say either “oh yeah, I had one of those”, or “oh, I remember those”. Then she’s stuck explaining that it’s completely different than those old Regals. Not good. Insignia would have been better.